INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[BackyardBitten]

if the property owner says no.. Immediately talk to you sheriff AND DNR, worried about you!

I love turkeys, I wish I would have started them a long time ago. They are very sweet birds, and loaded with personality too.

Awesome report on orschlens, which store? I have been to greenfields so far. I do like the staff there, they seemed more educated about the departments they worked in.

Mixed are a hardier bird usually and get to a good size!

X2.. this is odd.

i go to the one in greenfield. they are always friendly!!!

Well got a knock at the door at 2:45 am, liked to scare the jemmies right off me, it was the farmers boys and the sheriff. The man was arrested for 4 different things and I gave a statement as to when I first notice him and all. I have to put my pic's on a flash drive and give it too them, cause they are date and time stamped. don't know what was taking so long but they were out in the woods and at my back pasture at 4 am still when I had enough and went back to bed. I got up at 6:30 and they are gone. Beat ya I wont have any more lights in the woods now....

I'm so glad you don't have that weirdo hanging around out in the woods close to your property. That was just too weird!!! Hope you can sleep better tonight!

 

[CharlemagneRoost]

Welcome! I did the same thing when I started last year, I got a bunch of different breeds to see what I liked. I have settled on a few that I want to focus on. I chose the Bielefelder for similar reasons you chose the Norwegian Jaerjon (and they even look a bit alike!). They are gentle giants, known for being super friendly and they lay like superstars all winter long. They are also sex linked as chicks so you know immediately what you got! My chicks are ready and should be getting shipped in the next week! I'm super excited! I'm also located just north of Indianapolis!

Those are beautiful birds! Best of luck to you as you begin your new line!

 

[CharlemagneRoost]

Those chickens are really interesting. Where did you get your chicks and thank you for bringing them to our attention! That's just what this group needs is another kind of gorgeous bird, lol.

That coop is just flat ridiculous and awesome!

I got my Serama from two different sources on Craigslist and have hatched a few more. My first pair were some chicks hatched by a lady who lives west of Indianapolis. She had gotten her hatching eggs on eBay. I'm amazed that she had such a successful hatch with shipped Serama eggs, because from what I understand, that's a pretty tricky proposition. I haven't had a great hatch rate with my Serama eggs and I was relieved to learn that it's not abnormal for the Serama. Lots of them develop right up until hatch and then quit on you. It's so sad to autopsy an egg and find a fully developed chick. ... The other was an adult pair I acquired from a wealthy 4-H family northwest of Muncie. The mom had done her research to track some down and driven to Michigan, I think, to get them for her son. The rooster of that pair won first place in every show in which he was entered. They are the cutest little chickens! I love 'em!

My Norwegian Jaerhon are from Ideal Poultry in Texas. They are one of just two hatcheries that I found who carry them. Ideal carries the recognized standard for the breed. The other hatchery is Sandhill in Illinois. They have developed their own strain called the Flame Jaerhon. I think that I may be the first in Indiana to have some Jaerhon - at least I haven't been able to track down anyone else in our state who has them yet - but I haven't searched through the entire thread for the Jaerhon here on backyardchickens, yet, either. The closest I've found so far is a guy located in the lower part of Michigan who raises them.

Chickens are addicting. It's just fact!

 

[CharlemagneRoost]

Oops - I think you are asking about the Bielefelder, not my birds ... sorry!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: Good for you! I bet its a huge relief knowing the matter has been resolved. Pretty bold of them.

Hey guys I found my dream coop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.horizonstructures.com/storage-sheds-chicken-coop.asp

it's the 12'x40' with built on run.
It's beautiful and man would the kids love the room.

But I'll have to hit the loto first !!!!!!

I had to bring out ol Betsy! (That's my coyote rifle) I've had a big old, I'm assuming male running around all times of night and day. Seen him twice yesterday. Both times he was heading towards our barn!! This is not good news with our Nubians dropping kids now! He will with some luck disappear in the next day or two. Sorry if this offends anyone but I don't care for preditor's roaming this closely go my barn and animals!

I carry my 22 rifle daily. No offense here! Totally agree, you have a responsibility to protect your animals.
I had stray dogs kill one of my baby goats several years ago.Coyotes will even go after adult goats if they are hungry enough!

Warning in advance! Long post coming! I have had a busy last few days. First, I got my new (2nd) raised garden built. I am going to put cardboard down and then layer top soil, compost and peat before planting. It is 21 ft x 4 ft. I can't wait to get stuff in the ground!



Then I finished cleaning out my shed and made a bunch of progress on my two breeding pens! My current coop is the front left quadrant of my shed. The new breeding pens will be the back two quadrants, and will be roughly 6 ft x 6 ft. I got it all framed in, doors built and hung, the pop door made and one set of roosts up. I won't have the wall separating it into two sections until next Spring in all likelihood. My bielies and isbars won't be ready to lay until fall (they ship this week!!!!). The pic below is before I hung the second door, they are next to each other. I'm hoping to get the second roost and some of the hardware cloth up tonight. I am going to be putting my 9 week old Marans out there so they can be next to my current flock for a couple of weeks before I dump them in with the others. They will share a run with a divider.



And now on to my excitement of the morning! I blame daylight savings time. I went out to feed the horses this morning and heard a commotion up in the loft but didn't think anything of it. I carried the first two of four piles of hay out and when I came back in i glanced up and there was a shiny brown animal perched on top of the stall wall looking at me!!!!!! My groggy brain took a minute to react. It looked at me, much calmer than I was, and then walked across the stall wall, down the hay pile and went into the hay!!!!!!! By this time I am freaking out. It looked like a wild ferret with a bushy tail, it was dark brown and shiny. I think it was a mink but it might have been a weasel. Either way I don't want it living in the hay that I reach into twice a day with bare hands!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!! Now, I'm sure it is eating the mice, starlings and sparrows that are living in my barn and I have ZERO problem with that. Unfortunately I can't have it living in my hay and I'm worried it will develop an interest in the chickens at some point (the coop is about 8 feet from my horse barn). Do they hunt during the day? Has anyone had to catch one? I'm going to call my neighbor since I know he had to trap a mink last year, I'm sure he will set up his trap for me. But how do I know there aren't more of them?!?!?!?!? This think could have been living in my barn all winter, he clearly was not worried about me. But now that I know he is there he has to go!!!!

Yikes, thats not good, they will go after the birds eventually.
https://www.google.com/search?q=min...sance+predator&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official
Here is what my search gave me.

Quote: Its all mud and yuk here too. Waterfowl love it! Poultry are like ewwww its on my foot.. get it off.... EWWW!
Bedding changes for all the coops, and livestock are almost done for this next cold snap.
No goat kids yet. her hips look bony so its not long!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: I messaged brad and M2H, we are working out details.. We need as many contributors as we can find!

I forgot to tell you guys that I saw this chicken tractor at Costco the other day. It was $199 and so cute. I think it was big enough for three hens, but it would be great for little guys while they are growing up. Its probably not sturdy enough to handle predators in our area, but not bad in a protected place.

I always look at them too. Some do have hardware cloth now.

Quote:

oh my, if I won a lottery. It would be 49 acres of poultry instead of 5 here really fast

And I would not be building the coops either. Bielefelders caught my attention several months ago.

First legbar to hatch from my eggs and ends up being a pullet! Woohoo!

She is too adorable

Quote: We have coyote and thats the biggest in this area. I do get feelig prickly when I hear the owls.. or when they coyote are yapping.

It is so nice today, but we have a winte storm watch for tomorrow. 50 an sunny to snow and sleet. I wider if the weather will actually pan out right this time

UGH I know, tease us with sun and warmth. Then snow! It keeps changing so fingers crossed.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: It keeps changing for us too, hang in there!
I do the same thing, accuweather and weather.com

Quote: Nope it doesn't move that badly if its done right.. Its poor workmanship. I would be livid, the saw cuts cover minor changes, but heaving and sections not even is a very bad sign. I was in concrete construction as a controller several years, so I am very picky about detail.If the cuts are tilting, they did not prepare the base correctly.
My DH worked "there" also as a supervisor... please pm me and I can check out your contractor.

Someone send a boat! We'll be underwater by the time you get here!

Okay, I'm trying to be grateful for the warmer weather, but there's a whole heck of a lot of water here now. I have flooding in all of my pens (except the one with the 9 year old rooster, lucky boy) and my girls now have an indoor pool instead of a coop addition / sunroom.

The good news is that I have a fix for that, I just need the ground to thaw out enough for me to implement it. Of course, this apparently won't happen now that I'm on spring break and have plenty of time to fix it. Just what we need is more snow!

Oh, and I didn't think to quote the posts, but hey, I now have another breed on my want list! I'd heard of Jaerhons before, but I didn't know they were autosexing! I don't even have the money to think about building my barn yet, but I pretty much have it filled with breeds in my mind.

Also, I noticed that it was said a lot that they're sexlinks, but I thought I'd mention that that's not true. Sexlinks are single-generation hybrids that are able to be sexed at hatch by down color. They require two distinct breeds in order to create (for example, Rhode Island Red over Delawares), and the offspring from this cross will not then continue to create sexlinks if bred to one another; they do not breed true.

Jaerhons, Legbars, and the like are autosexing breeds, actual breeds that produce chicks that are able to be sexed at hatch by down color. As a breed, they breed true, meaning that each generation will continue to have the same general appearance as the last. Interestingly enough, many autosexing breeds can be bred to one another and still produce mixed breed chicks that are able to be sexed at hatch.

Okay, that's pretty nitpicky of me, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Yikes I can come with a boat!!!!
NO, not nit picky at all, huge difference. Sexlinks wont reproduce a sexlink, autosexing breeds will continue to tell you HEY its a hen

.

Quote: From the sidewalks I saw while studying on the east coast, I would say it COULD be true or partially true. I was out there for 4 winters. Every time it would freeze more sidewalks would be in large pieces. That said, a driveway would be thicker and have more of those rods placed in it.
We have neighbor friends that are not our next door neighbors here but pretty close. They paid to do a concrete entrance to their drive and pave the rest. In the past 7 yrs, that entrance has had a specific 1/4 of it replaced at least 3 times. I'm not asking who is paying but after a while I'm sure they were given the answer you got.
Our paved driveway has cracked from the freeze thaw system too. Our contractor told us it was because we sealed the drive. The only way he could recommend to fix it was to add a new top coat of pavement at our cost. I know sealing a paved driveway is standard care so we are living with the cracks for now. We have other larger contractor issues to fix first.
thats so sad. A good concrete construction company plans for the surroundings and makes it work with the environment.

I am up to 5 eggs a day!! I LOVE the egg song my girls sing. Have 2 BPR, a RIR, and a BSLink for sure laying. The 5th is a mystery still!
My husband is WAY into chickens this year. He's got 2-3 small coops planned for 3 small batches of breeds. 5 Buff ORP, 5 SLW, and planning on 5 S. Sussex.


I feel like I ALWAYS have a question when I come to you guys... but what are the most common signs of a broody hen?

I hope you get your answers. I have had broodies but I incubate all of mine so far.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Does anybody know if you can test your own flock once you are a certified NPIP tester? I know some states won't let you test your own flock. I looked it up, but I can't find the anwser. I was just curious, as I was reading discussion the other day. How about a non-chicken owner family member getting certified and testing your flock for you? I may have to make a few calls and send a few emails

If you get the certification, I think you can.

The EE girls are growing like crazy and learned to fly yesterday, so they have a net over the brooder now ,and the ducklings are having uneven growth spurts. Scrappy doubled in size this week!




Scrappy (lighter colored) And the littler one, who still needs a name. huge size difference today!

Seen allot of you like these birds and seen this so I thought I would send ya the link.
http://www.hoosiertopics.com/cgi-bin/aforum.isa?req=2ob390946a
and they have Standard as well

Thanks for sharing!

Got a kick outta this and immediately thought of my chicken buddies for some reasons.

Quote: Good to know, thanks!

 

[chick rookie]

i go to the one in greenfield. they are always friendly!!!
I'm so glad you don't have that weirdo hanging around out in the woods close to your property. That was just too weird!!! Hope you can sleep better tonight!

I did sleep pretty good and the dogs didn't wake me at 2 am either. They waited till 5:30 am which is normal.

Good for you! I bet its a huge relief knowing the matter has been resolved. Pretty bold of them.

I carry my 22 rifle daily. No offense here! Totally agree, you have a responsibility to protect your animals.
I had stray dogs kill one of my baby goats several years ago.Coyotes will even go after adult goats if they are hungry enough!

Yikes, thats not good, they will go after the birds eventually.
https://www.google.com/search?q=min...sance+predator&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official
Here is what my search gave me.

Its all mud and yuk here too. Waterfowl love it! Poultry are like ewwww its on my foot.. get it off.... EWWW!
Bedding changes for all the coops, and livestock are almost done for this next cold snap.
No goat kids yet. her hips look bony so its not long!

it is a relief and I just don't get people now days. It's no wonder I stay mostly to myself. I get to hear the coyotes almost every night. they don't come close to the property much, and when they do my 2 GP's take care of them real fast.

Its muddy in places here too we are lucky cause our places ( close to the house anyway) has allot of sand in the ground, so water drains away fast.

They're saying Tuesday night snow here 1-3".

here too, Tuesday night into Wednesday morning but not quite an inch.
I am plum sick of the whit stuff. Spring needs to be here with the temps and all. NOT SNOW AND 30'S

I am up to 5 eggs a day!! I LOVE the egg song my girls sing. Have 2 BPR, a RIR, and a BSLink for sure laying. The 5th is a mystery still!
My husband is WAY into chickens this year. He's got 2-3 small coops planned for 3 small batches of breeds. 5 Buff ORP, 5 SLW, and planning on 5 S. Sussex.


I feel like I ALWAYS have a question when I come to you guys... but what are the most common signs of a broody hen?

I miss my own eggs, cant wait till my chicks are grown and giving me gifts every day.

Just let me know what you want me to do. He can copy and paste or forward the messages to me and I and I can help with the updates or whatever you guys need done. I was just telling M2H that I really appreciate all that I have learned here and I'd be happy to help keep it together for others to do the same.
OH MY GOSH. That would just freak me out. I live in the woods too and its the only reason I've ever considered getting a rifle. When my dh goes out of town I don't sleep much at all. If he traveled more, it would be worth getting an alarm on the whole place, but for now, my Fiona and Max do the job. So happy for you that they took him away. Be safe.

my gun is always close by.
thanks I'm very happy he is gone. even happier that it wasn't "other-worldly visitors"

but the thought did cross my mind that first night.

Those chickens are really interesting. Where did you get your chicks and thank you for bringing them to our attention! That's just what this group needs is another kind of gorgeous bird, lol.

That coop is just flat ridiculous and awesome!

isn't it though? will have at least 4....

I had to bring out ol Betsy! (That's my coyote rifle) I've had a big old, I'm assuming male running around all times of night and day. Seen him twice yesterday. Both times he was heading towards our barn!! This is not good news with our Nubians dropping kids now! He will with some luck disappear in the next day or two. Sorry if this offends anyone but I don't care for preditor's roaming this closely go my barn and animals!

didnt offend me I fell the same way, I'm still waiting on my kids to arrive.........

Warning in advance! Long post coming! I have had a busy last few days. First, I got my new (2nd) raised garden built. I am going to put cardboard down and then layer top soil, compost and peat before planting. It is 21 ft x 4 ft. I can't wait to get stuff in the ground!



Then I finished cleaning out my shed and made a bunch of progress on my two breeding pens! My current coop is the front left quadrant of my shed. The new breeding pens will be the back two quadrants, and will be roughly 6 ft x 6 ft. I got it all framed in, doors built and hung, the pop door made and one set of roosts up. I won't have the wall separating it into two sections until next Spring in all likelihood. My bielies and isbars won't be ready to lay until fall (they ship this week!!!!). The pic below is before I hung the second door, they are next to each other. I'm hoping to get the second roost and some of the hardware cloth up tonight. I am going to be putting my 9 week old Marans out there so they can be next to my current flock for a couple of weeks before I dump them in with the others. They will share a run with a divider.



And now on to my excitement of the morning! I blame daylight savings time. I went out to feed the horses this morning and heard a commotion up in the loft but didn't think anything of it. I carried the first two of four piles of hay out and when I came back in i glanced up and there was a shiny brown animal perched on top of the stall wall looking at me!!!!!! My groggy brain took a minute to react. It looked at me, much calmer than I was, and then walked across the stall wall, down the hay pile and went into the hay!!!!!!! By this time I am freaking out. It looked like a wild ferret with a bushy tail, it was dark brown and shiny. I think it was a mink but it might have been a weasel. Either way I don't want it living in the hay that I reach into twice a day with bare hands!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!! Now, I'm sure it is eating the mice, starlings and sparrows that are living in my barn and I have ZERO problem with that. Unfortunately I can't have it living in my hay and I'm worried it will develop an interest in the chickens at some point (the coop is about 8 feet from my horse barn). Do they hunt during the day? Has anyone had to catch one? I'm going to call my neighbor since I know he had to trap a mink last year, I'm sure he will set up his trap for me. But how do I know there aren't more of them?!?!?!?!? This think could have been living in my barn all winter, he clearly was not worried about me. But now that I know he is there he has to go!!!!

good job, I have been taking advantage of the great weather too. I'd be getting rid of your extra critter too.

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

i havent listened to those stations for a while, since moving from Waterloo, IN to Michigan (10 years ago).   Maybe i can stream them

I dint listen to WOWO, my dad sends me the weather text alerts occasionally. K105 is all I listen to. I don't what I listen to if I didn't have k105, probably just but a bunch of CDs lol. Streaming maybe worth a try.

Hey those are fort wayne stations! Are you close to that area? We are in the same weather range here in columbia city.

Yes. I have a bluffton address, but I live 3 or 4 miles from liberty center. It take me 45 mins to get to FW.